The Emerging Literacy & Language Assessment (ELLA), evaluates the skills children ages 4;6 to 9;11 need to become proficient readers. The ELLA meets Early Reading First requirements for educators needing to use evidence-based diagnostic tools to identify children at risk for reading failure. The manual includes a Curriculum and Classroom Connection for each of the 22 subtests and case studies to help you establish treatment and IEP goals.

Individual administration for ages 4;6 – 5;5 (all three sections) takes about 30-45 minutes, and for ages 5;6 – 9;11 (all three sections) takes about 60 minutes. The ELLA is norm- and criterion-referenced. It includes standard scores, confidence intervals, percentile ranks, means, and age equivalents.

Section 1 – Phonological Awareness and Flexibility assesses rhyming (awareness and production), initial sound identification, blending and segmenting sounds, words, and syllables and deleting and substituting sounds in the initial and final positions of words.

Section 3 – Memory, Retrieval, and Automaticity assess rapid naming, word associations (name items that start with the "S" sound), and story retell (includes three story levels based on the child’s age).

Why Test With the ELLA?

Meets Early Reading First and Reading First requirements to use evidence-based diagnostic tools.

Section One of the ELLA is a comprehensive phonological awareness assessment.

ELLA is the only test of emerging literacy and language with a Story Retell Section!

It's simple to administer and score.

Start ages and ceilings help reduce testing time and frustration. Administer one, two, or all sections of the ELLA.

Who May Administer the ELLA?

Speech-language pathologists, special educators, resource specialists, reading specialists, school psychologists, and other professionals who are knowledgeable about literacy and language may administer the ELLA. We recommend that test administrators be experienced in the administration, scoring, and interpretation of standardized assessments.

Valid and Reliable

The ELLA is a valid and reliable instrument. The standardization sample includes over 1200 children ages 4;6  9;11 from 40 states in the U.S. The standardization sample closely resembles the U.S. Census Bureau’s data (Statistical Abstract of the U.S. 2003). The sample includes children with identified language and learning disorders, as well as children receiving remediation in reading.

Obtaining Scores

Examiners may choose which sections of the ELLA they want to administer, depending upon the child’s area(s) of difficulty. ELLA allows examiners to obtain standard scores, confidence intervals, percentile ranks, means, and age equivalents.